A place to hang your apron and catch a glimpse of country life

Take a hike, literally

The winters in New York can be so discouraging. Cold and snow, and more cold and snow. Unfortunately, there are more gray and overcast days than there are sunny ones.

As a child I loved winter. My time was spent sledding, skiing, ice skating, and building snow igloos. All of my friends and I spent more time outside than we did inside. Today it’s quite the contrary.

I’ve been exercising everyday, mostly on my stationary exercise bike. To be quite frank, it is darn right boring. I do it because I’m stubborn. I won’t let it get the best of me. I will get the best of it.

This weekend, deliberately to avoid that boring exercise bike, I decided go for a hike in our woods. With a wee bit of encouragement I convinced hubby to tag along. Dressed for our outing, camera in hand, off we strolled.

The first point of interest on our walk, a beautiful Red-Tail hawk soaring over us with such grace and elegance. Oh, how I wish I could fly. I was so engrossed in this creatures flying ability that I forgot I had a camera in hand. We had startled the hawk from a secluded area which we decided to explore. It was there that we found a freshly killed rabbit. Undoubtably the hawks supper.

Our walk led us through the woods. No beautiful wild flowers, colorful foliage, or any other sign of life. Just a forest dormant, blanketed with snow. A stark, yet tranquil setting.

It is in these woods that we harvest our sap for maple syrup. Every year we anxiously await the time that we can get out our taps and buckets, and wait for the sap to flow. Maple sugaring not only produces wonderful bottles of syrup, it also gives us hope that spring is not too far away.

I look forward to warm sunny days, hints of spring, more hikes in the woods, and the smell of that sweet sap cooking down.. What do you look forward to in the days ahead?

I’m a fair weather runner. It gets depressing this time of year because I don’t get out enough. This winter I’ve lucked out and started a weekly hike with two of my girlfriends. It’s cold as H-E- double hockey sticks but as long as I’m moving I don’t freeze.
If you can stand it keep it up. There is something wonderful about being outside- I know it sound corny but the fresh air just changes me for the better.